Lost Then Found
by wintersayshi
Summary: Lottie and Rusty Beck has the worst luck in the world. That wasn't an exaggeration but the cold hard truth, forced to grow up and be the adults in an unstable home life with their mother until she abandoned them. Forced to live on the street, doing whatever it took to survive until Rusty became a witness in a murder case. Then things really started to change, maybe for the better..
1. Chapter 1

_The air was hot and heavy, even with the car windows rolled all the way down and the wind providing some much breeze couldn't escape the hot humidity or the fact that it was so stuffy in the car, especially after being stuck in the same seat for the past nine hours. Charlotte Beck or rather Lottie as she preferred to be called couldn't ever remember it ever being so hot before in her short little years. But they were in Texas now and the hot weather was to be expected in The Lone Star State according to Lottie's mother whatever that meant. All Lottie knew was that yet again they were moving again, this was the 11__th__ state in 8 years and Lottie couldn't remember how many times that she had been new kid, in a new town and trying to make friends before things fell apart and they were on the move again. Sometimes it was because mom had used all the rent money to get drunk and they needed to skip out on the rent and town before the landlord called the cops. Then times it was because the town didn't have quite the right fit, it was too cold or too small, one time it didn't have the right juju, Lottie was pretty certain that it was Phoenix. She couldn't really be sure as they moved around so many times that Lottie had lost track. All Lottie knew was that there were moving yet again, this time to Dallas and her mom seemed really excited about moving to Texas, like she was every time that moved to a new place, claiming that it was an adventure and it was going to be fun for them all, until things went wrong – it was only a matter of time. Things always went wrong._

_"__Just you wait kids, everything is going to be different this time. I have a real good feeling about Gerry…" Sharon Beck stated with a broad grin as she glanced back to her two children sitting in the back seat of her beat up old car before returning her gaze back to the road. Gerry was Lottie's mom new boyfriend and the reason that they were moving to Dalls. "He's a good man, real nice and sturdy. It's about time that Jesus dropped kicked a nice man into our lives who will be able to take care of us. Give the three of us the life we deserve. I promise you kids, this time it's going to work out. The two of you are going to love Dallas…"_

_Eight year old Lottie didn't say anything and neither did her twin brother Rusty who sat beside her in the car. The two of them had heard all of this before, the excitement in their mother's voice as she went on about some new man in her life who would take care of them all and provide them with a better life like she was some giddy love struck teenager. At eight years old the Beck twins knew not to put much thought into their mother's promises about a man coming along to save them as nothing ever changed in their lives. They had heard this speech countless times before and they knew the only thing that ever changed was the men coming in and out of their mother's life and how long she would remain sober for. It didn't mean that they didn't want to believe her as Lottie did, she really wanted to believe that someday everything would be all better. That they would leave in a nice house and she would have her own bedroom and no longer have to share a bed with Rusty or their mother depending on where they were. Maybe one day things would be better…_

* * *

Lottie Beck tightly gripped the straps of her backpack as she quietly shuffled through the hallways of the LAPD, trailing behind her brother Rusty who was currently on crutches at the moment, hobbling behind the police officer who had brought them in. This wasn't exactly how Lottie thought the day would go when she woke up this morning and the last place she wanted to be was at another police station. If Lottie had things her way then she and Rusty would be on a bus to Nebraska or some other far off place where no one would come looking for them, most of all the cops. Her and Rusty had been busted by the cop, a couple of hours after they had run away from their current foster home for the third time in the last week. Lottie had lost track of the number of foster homes that she and her brother had been placed in, all that she really knew was that being in foster care sucked. The foster home that they had just run away from hadn't been that bad, Lottie could remember being in worst ones but this particular one had been a bit tiresome and the foster parents had this weird set of rules that hadn't gone down too well with Rusty and so the two of them had to decided to take off. Both of them knew that the two of them could take care of each other better than some person appointed by the state who was just in it for the money. Lottie knew that her and Rusty didn't need anyone as they had been looking after each other for as long as she could remember. They had grown up taking care of each other and their addict mother whenever she fell off the wagon or when she abandoned them at the zoo and never came back, running off with her moronic boyfriend. The two of them had survived on the street for months and they could do it again with DCFS interfering and they would do a much better job than any adult could. The Beck twins had promised each other that they would always stick together no matter what, through the good or bad although Lottie knew imagined that would involve her brother becoming a key witness in this huge murder trial.

Rusty witnessing a serial killer burying one of his victims bodies was something that Lottie hadn't seen coming but she had quickly adapted to the whole situation as her and Rusty had been dealt a lot of crappy hands in their life. From the beatings they used to get from their mom's numerous boyfriends, one of which resulted in Lottie going deaf in her right ear or taking care of their addict mother after she had gone on a huge bender, coming back drunk or high, sometimes even both. Lottie and Rusty had taken care of their mother since they were small kids until she abandoned them at the zoo. Sharon Beck dropped her two children off at the zoo, claiming that she and her boyfriend would come and collect them in a couple of hours, but they never did. That was pretty much the crappiest hand that Lottie had ever received, she found it worse than going deaf in her one ear and since that day Lottie couldn't have the zoo mentioned in front of her without becoming sick. Right now Lottie wasn't sure what a worse place to be right now would be; the zoo or the police station but there wasn't anything she could so. After the cops had picked her and Rusty up they had been taken to the Major Crimes Division of the LAPD as the case that Rusty was a material witness to was one of their cases and it apparently in Rusty's file to bring him there if anything happened and since Rusty refused to go anywhere without Lottie, the police officer had brought her along too. Whilst Rusty was directed to take a seat by the officer who had brought them in, Lottie remained standing where she was, instead taking in every detail of the room as she possible could such as how many people there were in here, the amount of windows and debating in her head the quickest way they could get out of here. Although Lottie knew that it was going to be hard as they were in a building filled with cops who weren't just going to let two street kids just waltz out the building. Especially if one of them was a witness for a very important case of theirs. Lottie was so lost in her imagination, trying to think of way that her and Rusty could get out of this hell hole and away from the cops that she didn't notice her brother trying to get her attention. That was until Rusty had hit her in the leg with one of his crutches and with an annoyed look on his face, pointing for Lottie to turn her hearing aid back on. Lottie had a tendency to turn off her hearing aid when she was in a situation that made her nervous and it made her feel easier to turn the hearing aid off and be unable to hear pretty much anything.

"Hey Lott?" Rusty quietly began making sure not to draw attention to either of them from any of the top. Being invisible was sort of like a specialty to the Beck twins. Before this whole witness thing with Rusty, the two of them were invisible, living on the streets and doing whatever it took to survive. Lottie and Rusty had been anonymous, no one knew who they were, not the cops and DCFS. Now they did. Made it harder for Lottie and Rusty to slip back under the radar. But they would try and figure things out.

"Yeah, Rusty?"

"About what happened earlier–"

"It wasn't your fault. None of this is Rusty." Lottie began knowing full well that this was going, her brother was going to blame himself for getting them rounded up by the cops. He was going to blame the fact that they were forced into foster care after he had called the police to report that he saw a man burying what looked to be a body in Griffith park and the police had tracked him down. They wouldn't have been caught if it wasn't for the fact that Rusty couldn't run at the moment. Even though Rusty was on crutches, Lottie was a certified klutz and she had a tendency to take people down with her when she tripped over. Her tripping over her own damn feet when the cops managed to track them down, somewhat slowed down their chance off escape. It was embarrassing really, Lottie was sixteen and had practically zero hand eye co-ordination and that was without throwing in the whole deaf in one ear thing. Lottie heard her brother groan before leaning his head down against the table. She knew that Rusty wanted no part of this but had agreed to do what the police wanted if the police located their mother and brought her back Lottie wasn't thrilled about either of these things, especially the part involving their mother. But she said nothing as out of the two of them, Rusty was the talker. Instead Lottie just idly shuffled her feet along and occasionally glanced at the young police officer who was clearly on babysitting duty and not thrilled about it either.

"Rusty." A soft and feminine voice began and looking in the direction of where it come from Lottie saw an a woman, a bit older than her mother with soft auburn hair, black rimmed glasses dressed in a fitted black skirt suit. Given that she knew Rusty, Lottie assumed that this was one of his new cop friends he had made when he had helped the cops find the killer that he had stumbled across, who had also tried to kill him. "What are you doing here?"

"His file says attention: Major crimes and this is the third time he's run away from home this week." The cop explained.

"It's not our home." Rusty firmly stated and Lottie slowly nodded her in agreement, they didn't have a home like normal people. There was no house that was home to them. Growing up they were constantly moving around, getting kicked out of places because their mom kept skipping out on the rent. For the Beck twins, home was with each other.

"The foster parents that DCFS put him with won't take him back, but they will however take the girl–"

"No! Not happening! How many times do I have to tell you people that me and my sister stay together before you finally listen!?" Rusty demanded in a loud manner and seeing that her brother was getting himself worked up for no reason, Lottie reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. She didn't need to say anything as Lottie knew that Rusty knew deep down that she would never leave him. That she wouldn't let anyone separate them. They would always stick together no matter what. Lottie understood why just the mention of them being separated freaked Rusty out as their mom bailing on them messed them up real good, even Rusty who was still adamant that their mother would come back to them someday. Lottie was no shrink but she believed the term used was something along the lines of abandonment issue. Their mom leaving forced both Lottie and Rusty to do things they never imagined themselves doing in order to survive. Especially Rusty. He did the one thing that Lottie just couldn't do in order to provide for them both. If it was anyone's fault that the two of them ended up the way they were then it was Lottie. If she had just pulled herself together that night, not thought too much of what she was doing, what she was selling then she would have made them money. Rusty never wanted her to do that kind of stuff as he was the eldest, only by fifteen minutes however he argued that it was his job to take her of his sister but Lottie wanted to help. However things didn't end up like that as she freaked out and got smacked around instead. So after that it was only Rusty who did that kind of stuff whilst Lottie got them money in more creative avenues. Because of the sacrifices Rusty made to take care of her, Lottie would never leave him.

"You must be Charlotte, I'm Captain Raydor." The woman with auburn hair began with a small and friendly smile as she held out her hand for Lottie to shake after taking a good look at Lottie's hair which was currently a pastel pink colour. Lottie just wearily looked at the offer hand as she wasn't exactly sure what to do with it. Well Lottie knew why people shook hands but it was just something that she didn't feel comfortable with. To be honest Lottie didn't feel comfortable with most people and after a moment Captain Raydor seemed to realize this as she withdrew her hand.

"It's Lottie. Just Lottie, no one calls me Charlotte…" Lottie quietly said in an awkward manner as she looked around, avoiding any eye contact in the slightest. Lottie didn't like being here in the slightest, in fact she wanted to find the nearest corner in which she could hide in, turn off her hearing aid and submerge herself in a book until all over this was over, or her and Rusty got sent back to foster care. Whichever came first.

"I see… So may I ask what the issue is with the poster parents?" Captain Raydor asked and Lottie found herself looking at the floor as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. The foster parents weren't that bad, Lottie knew that they could be a lot worse and do things like hit them or handcuff them to radiators and generally be abuse or be drugs dealers. Which was a whole other situation that Lottie didn't want to get into at the moment.

"They were terrible." Rusty announced.

"What's the problem?"

"Living with complete strangers that is the problem. They were, like, telling me and Lottie what to do all day long, even, like, what we could eat and they would turn off the television at 9:00 every night." Rusty began listing off all the reasons why the foster parents were the devil incarnate in their eyes. This whole foster care thing was way too stressful, things were so much easier for Lottie and Rusty when they were living on the streets. Life was simpler. Now it was complicated and Lottie didn't like complicated, it made her head hurt. It made her feel anxious.

"So, you were tortured?" Captain Raydor quipped in a dry manner and Lottie couldn't help scoff in amusement as she didn't expect the woman to come out with something like that and it was kind of funny. But given the glare that Rusty was sending her way, he clearly didn't appreciate Lottie laughing and she had to remind herself that there were in a serious situation. Yet making jokes about being tortured by not so evil foster parents.

"Depends on the definition." Lottie commented in an offhanded manner.

"Another thing they were treating my sister like crap! My sister may be deaf in one ear but she is not stupid! They were being obnoxious and talking loudly to Lottie as if she can't do anything and talking about her as if she couldn't hear!" Rusty hissed and Lottie squeezed her brother's shoulder again, as if to tell him that there was no need to get worked up for her part. Lottie knew that no everyone was as understanding about her condition like Rusty was, people saw the hearing aid and assumed she was completely deaf in both ears. That wasn't the case, but people didn't really understand. Lottie was use to people not understanding and people making assumptions whereas Rusty would get defensive if people were ignorant to Lottie's condition.

"I will take care of them, thank you officer." Captain Raydor said in a polite manner dismissing the officer, leaving Lottie wondering by what the captain meant by the whole she'll take care of them. She was certain in the least that her and Rusty wouldn't like it in the slightest especially if meant them being sent to another set of foster parents who probably had little interest in putting up with them and their antics.

"Look, I know Brenda was fired or whatever, but I need to speak with her right now." Rusty began with a long sigh and Lottie along with Rusty followed Captain Raydor in an office, which Lottie presumed to be hers. After he had hobbled in, Lottie helped Rusty sit himself down in a chair. Once he was settle Lottie remained standing, she couldn't sit down as that would mean putting her guard down and she couldn't do that. Lottie had to be prepared for whatever was coming so she could react to it and she couldn't do that if she was sitting down. Lottie would continue let Rusty do the talking for the two of them as he had their best interests at heart and Lottie would keep an eye out for people who resembled social workers or foster parents.

"Lottie, would you like to sit?" Captain Raydor questioned and Lottie just shook her head.

"She doesn't sit. She can't pace up and down if she's sitting." Rusty offhandedly commented as Captain Raydor sat behind the desk before returning to the subject matter at hand. "Look… We had a deal. I helped you guys catch a serial killer so that you would find my mom not just dump me and my sister into the system. I mean, you want to know why people don't like the police? It's because you're all a bunch of liars. That's why."

"Okay. Rusty we haven't been able to find your mom yet, and you along with Lottie are too young to live unsupervised."

"We lived unsupervised for months and nobody cared what we we're doing or where we we're staying, we can handle it. We're not kids, Rusty and I can take care of ourselves, have been for our entire lives." Lottie replied in a wearing tone as she glanced through the blinds in the office and looked out into the murder room, fidgeting with the straps with her backpack as she kept an eye out as to who was coming in and out of the major crimes division.

"Lottie, your brother is a material witness in a murder trial, which means that he had to go to court when Philip Stroh stands trial, and he will have to testify under oath about what happened to him." Captain Raydor stated, referring to the two times that Phillip Stroh had attacked Rusty in an attempt to kill him so there would be no witness to his crimes. The mere mention of him caused Lottie to swallow a lump in her throat as she played with the ends of her long hair as she thought about that night. She was supposed to have been there. Well in the area as she acted as Rusty's spotter when he went out on jobs. Lottie wasn't actually there when Rusty went off with those guys, but she hung around in the general area to make sure nothing bad happened. But the night at Griffith Park when Rusty was first attacked by Phillip Stroh she hadn't been there, Lottie hadn't been feeling well so she stayed at the building that they had been squatting in at the time. Now, because of that night someone guy wanted her brother dead. Lottie wasn't sure how much more of this she could take.


	2. Chapter 2

_People constantly surprised Lottie. She used to think that people were just good and evil, but over the years she learned that people weren't that simple. They were complicated, broken and flawed people but a lot of them tried to do better, to be better. Whilst some didn't. Such as her mother, Lottie never thought that her mother would abandon her and Rusty to take off with her boyfriend. That wasn't what mother's did, they were supposed to take of their children, always be there for them. Lottie knew maybe there was a reason their mother did what she did and that she didn't understand or see the bigger picture. All Lottie knew was that when she became a mother, she would never let her children be without her. No matter how hard things may be. Whilst Rusty thought their mother was the next best thing from sliced bread, Lottie's opinion was quite the opposite. To her, Sharon Beck was the villain, as it was always the villain that left. The hero was the one who stayed. Another person who surprised Lottie was Captain Raydor, she had said that she would sort out another place for her and Rusty to stay. Lottie half expected it to be another foster home. She hadn't been expecting Captain Raydor to bring her and Rusty back to her own home to stay with her._

_"__Don't think I'm gonna be all, like, thankful for you taking us in. We are not charity cases..." Rusty stated as from the couch as Captain Raydor went about pouring herself a glass of wine. Lottie idly stood between the living room and the kitchen, taking in the apartment. It was actually quite nice. Real nice, a lot nicer than any place they had ever stayed before. Which made Lottie just feel even more uncomfortable as all of this seemed a bit too good to be true. So Lottie was just waiting for the other shoe to drop as a cop didn't just decide to take in two street kids. Lottie and Rusty weren't the sweet and precious street kids that you saw in the movies, they were a pickpocket and a hustler. Kids with real problems._

_"__Oh, trust me. You're not the first adolescents to grace my home with your presence. Having raised two teenagers of my own, I have tremendous capacity for ingratitude. It's so funny, just when you get good at being a mother, you're fired." Captain Raydor began as she made way over to the couch._

_"Or you quit." Lottie grimly noted as she awkwardly touched her right ear, desperately wanting to turn her hearing aid off or take it out as she referred to her mother, as who else would you describe a parent running off from their parental responsibilities?_

_"So, what are we supposed to call each other, anyway?" Rusty questioned._

_ "__Oh. I think you should call me Captain Raydor."_

_"__Okay and you can call me Mr. Beck." Rusty retorted._

_"__You are the child in this relationship." _

_"__No, I am the witness. If you are the police officer, then I am the witness." Rusty responded and Lottie sighed as she allowed herself to sit into an armchair. She could see that Rusty and Captain Raydor was just going to go back and forth with this conversation and it wasn't going to end anytime soon as Rusty loved a good argument as much as the next person. Confrontation was something that Lottie didn't like, she shirked away from it often playing the deaf card to get out it but Rusty on the other hand? Had no problem rising to the occasion if he needed to._

_"There are not a lot of people around here who call me by my first name." Captain Raydor explained._

_"__Oh, well, maybe that's why you live alone with two spare bedrooms." Rusty couldn't help but point out and Lottie wished she was in close enough proximity to kick her brother's good leg. Just because he didn't like the situation, it didn't mean he had to be rude to the woman who had brought them back to her home to stay with her instead of dumping them into some kind of care home. Captain Raydor didn't have to do this but she did and Lottie knew it wouldn't kill Rusty to show a tiny bit of gratitude despite his feelings on cop and general adult figures._

_"__I live alone because my children are grown. The spare bedroom is for when they visit. But you may call me Sharon. How's that?" Sharon asked and Lottie felt her stomach drop to the floor moments after Captain Raydor revealed what her first name was. That was the last name that Lottie would have guessed as being the Captain's name. Sharon wouldn't have even crossed Lottie's mind for obvious reasons and who she commonly associated that name with._

_"Sharon?" Lottie hoarsely questioned._

_"__Mm-hmm."_

_"__What, is that like your bad idea of a joke or something? Why do you say that? Sharon is our mother's name!" Rusty stated getting himself all worked up whilst Lottie just remained where she sat as right now she couldn't move. Lottie feared that if she got up then she would be sick all over Captain Raydor's apartment and that was the last thing she wanted. This was a coincidence, a pretty rotten one that made Lottie and Rusty feel uncomfortable. Lottie didn't like thinking about her mother at the best of times as it made her think of the zoo and thinking of the zoo caused the vomiting._

_"Oh…" Sharon slowly began, noticing the reaction._

_"God, you haven't been looking for her at all, have you?" Rusty demanded and Lottie could see that the expression on Sharon's face said it all. Lottie wasn't sure whether she was relieved that the police hadn't kept their promise about looking for their mother to keep themselves in Rusty's good graces. The way Lottie thought about it and she had thought about it a lot, was that there was no point in looking for their mother if she didn't come back as she would probably take off again. If their mother came back and wanted to be a mom again then she would have to come of her own free will._

_"__Rusty, I just got this job yesterday. Give me a chance to catch up. I am making a good-faith effort. I am–" Sharon began in an reassuring manner._

_"–Where's your bathroom?"_

_"__It's right down there." Sharon replied as she looked over to the hallway and getting up to his feet Rusty hobbled over to his crutches and made his way over in the direction of the bathroom. "Rusty. If it is possible to find your mother, I will do it. I promise you."_

_"Sure you will, captain. Sure you will…" Rusty scoffed as he continued to hobble away and after a moments the sound of a door opening and shutting the door could be heard. Lottie turned her attention over to Sharon, who suddenly seemed tired and a bit worn out and Lottie couldn't help but smile as Rusty tended to do that people._

_"__I'm sorry…" Lottie began and Sharon looked up at her in surprise. "About Rusty, I know he is a bit rough around the edges and being incredibly rude but he is a good kid. I swear it's just things keep getting complicated and we don't depend on adults anymore. Everything was fine until all of this happened…"_

_"__What do you think about all of this Lottie?" Sharon asked and Lottie was surprised as no one had ever taken the time to ask her how she felt about any of this. She was the spare part that tagged along with Rusty. Lottie was nothing. She was invisible and that was how she liked it._

_"__Does it ever matter what I think? Rusty is the witness here."_

_"__Of course it matters what you think Lottie, just because Rusty is a material witness in a murder case it doesn't mean that you don't matter either. All of this happened to you as well." Sharon stated and Lottie took a deep breath and waited for a few moments before she spoke._

_"__What I think is that you didn't have to do all of this, taking Rusty in is one thing but me as well is something else. I'm not the important witness, I have nothing to do with any of this, I am just Rusty's goofy sister who doesn't like to talk much. You could have easily just been stuck me with another set of foster parents…" Lottie wearily said as she fiddled with the ends of her hair._

_"__After everything that you and Rusty have been through Lottie, I would never dream of separating you from each other. Rusty needs you and you need him, that much is obvious, I think even more so because of Rusty's involvement in the Philip Stroh case. Besides Rusty has made it perfectly clear that he will not co-operate with us if the two of you were separated. The two of you come as a package deal."_

* * *

Lottie sat cross legged at Sharon's dining room table quietly reading a book as currently it seemed like she was the only one up, which didn't surprise her considering it was pretty early in the morning. Sharon had yet to come out of her room and Rusty was still sleeping away on the couch, refusing to sleep in the spare room that had been offered to him. Rusty was being extremely pigheaded about the situation, making a point about not taking the spare room and how he wasn't going to let the cops try and dissuade him from having them look for their mom by giving him a bed to sleep in. Lottie couldn't blame her brother as he clearly missed their mom and he was just trying to look out for the two of them and keep them both safe. The last few months had been hard on Rusty, much more than Lottie knew she would ever understand and she didn't know how to help him. Rusty always said she had the brains out of the two of them but the way Lottie saw it she wasn't smart enough as if she was she would have found some way to save them both and prevent them from the life that they had been exposed to. Rusty had been forced to do something that no one his age should ever do, instead of hanging out at home playing computer games or studying, he had been selling his body on the street in order to take care of them both. It wasn't fair and yet not once did Lottie ever hear Rusty complain about any of it, in Lottie's eyes her brother was her hero. He had did what he thought was necessary to provide for them both, whereas Lottie hadn't been able to do that, all Lottie was, happened to be a smart mouth kid who liked to keep her head stuck in the depths of a book and was good at swiping wallets. Turning another page in her book, Lottie let out a sigh as for once in her short life she really wasn't in the mood to be reading as she had a lot more weighing on her mind right now. Shutting her book, Lottie got the surprise of her life when she looked up and saw Captain Raydor or Sharon as the captain told them to call her, sat down at the table.

"Geez! Make some noise why don't you!" Lottie spluttered before realizing how stupid she sound, her a partially deaf person had just told someone to make some noise. Especially when Sharon was sitting on Lottie's right side, the side in which she had no hearing. With a small sigh to herself, Lottie picked up her purple translucent hearing aid and turned it on before putting it back on her ear. Lottie only had one hearing aid because she had unilateral hearing loss or single-sided deafness as most people knew it as. Lottie had a profound hearing loss, she had no functional hearing ability in her right ear without her hearing aid in and even with the hearing aid, she still couldn't hear like a normal person. Her hearing aid that sat behind her ear picked up sound from her poorer ear and transmitted it to her good ear. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that…I don't tend to put my hearing aid as soon as I wake up and I didn't see you so I got a bit startled."

"That's okay Lottie, I must say you're up early…" Sharon began in a warm manner and Lottie watched as the elder woman headed towards the kitchen and started shuffling around, pressing buttons and opening cupboards. Lottie assumed that Captain Raydor was going about her morning routine and making herself a cup of coffee. Lottie wasn't sure how to react, normally one of her foster parents would have yelled at her for not having the hearing aid in and not make small talk.

"Umm… I've always been an early riser unlike my brother who you have to literally drag out of bed as Rusty likes his sleep." Lottie replied as she glanced over the direction of the couch and although she couldn't see her brother, Lottie knew he was there because she could hear him muttering the odd words and wouldn't be moving from that spot for a while. Rusty liked sleeping and never got up early like Lottie did unless he had to and even then he didn't like it and was prone to being a bit grumpy if he was woken up before he would have liked. A lot of the time Rusty slept during the day because he had been working the night before so Lottie just left him to sleep.

"Did you sleep well?"

"I did, very well actually but it's always been easy for me to fall asleep given the whole deaf thing. I can sleep through anything..." Lottie honestly replied with a weak smile as she couldn't remember the last time she had slept so well. She was pretty sure that she had fallen asleep the moment her head had hit the pillow. It had been such a long time since Lottie had slept in a nice soft bed, in a room by herself and practically sleep without one eye open because they were crashing on the streets or in abandoned buildings with other people who would think twice about robbing you blind in your sleep. It had been nice to have several hours of a nice deep and uninterrupted nights sleep on a bed that wasn't an old dingy mattress that was practically all springs of tarpin layed on the ground. When Lottie had woken up this morning it had taken her a moment to remember where she was as she had found herself in unfamiliar environment until it finally kicked in that Sharon had brought her and Rusty home with her. Lottie had to remind herself that she shouldn't get her hopes up as this wasn't going to last, eventually her and Rusty would be handed a crappy deal which was life's way of smacking them down when they had gotten themselves too comfortable. Plus there was no way that Sharon would want to keep two misfits like her and Rusty, Lottie would be surprised if this gig lasted more than a week before Sharon's patience wore thin with her and Rusty. Lottie was going to have to savor this until it ended as she knew her and Rusty would no doubt end up back on the streets, whatever foster home they were placed in they would end up leaving and being back where they had come from.

"Lottie, what's wrong?" Sharon asked. Although Sharon was practically a stranger, Lottie had this feeling that she could trust the woman as Sharon didn't have to help them. She didn't have to take in both Rusty and Lottie and yet she did both as well promise to find her mother. Lottie knew that both Rusty and Lottie had good reason to be weary of Sharon Raydor, she would probably be another disappointment like most of the adults in her life. But there was something about her that told Lottie that Sharon wasn't like the other adults. That she could be trusted but despite this, Lottie would keep the woman at an arms length until she could be sure the woman could be trusted.

"I've never had one you know…" Lottie wearily began as she looked around the apartment, she didn't mean to sound so wax lyrical about it but it was such a nice and clean apartment. There was no broken or used furniture, everything seemed to have a place and was nicely decorated. Most importantly there was a front door with two locks which would probably prevents people from coming in and stealing all of Sharon's belongings. Lottie had never stayed anywhere so nice before, when they were still living with their mom, Lottie and Rusty would be living in run down apartments which weren't the nicest of places. Scarcely furnished and badly decorated, when they got kicked out they moved around motels and so on. They never had money for nice things as their mother was generally spending what little money they had on getting strung out. Looking around Sharon's apartment it was like it was this huge What If? For Lottie, this could have been the life that she could have had if things had turned out different.

"Had what?" Sharon questioned and Lottie shook her head and forced herself to swallow a huge lump in her throat.

"Nothing… Forget I said anything." Lottie awkwardly replied, looking down at her book and praying that Sharon wouldn't force the subject as already Lottie felt like she had said way too much. Lottie had the urge to run back to the spare room that she had slept in, shut the door and hide in the corner of the room. But Lottie knew she couldn't do that as she was a guest in Sharon's home, which made her feel obligated to stay in her seat despite how uncomfortable she was currently feeling.

"How long have you been deaf in your right ear? If you don't mind me asking…" Sharon asked in a delicate manner as she returned to the dining room table with a cup of coffee in her head, no doubt trying to be sensitive about the whole deaf thing. Lottie appreciated that Sharon was talking to her in a normal tone of voice, no talking louder in an effort to make sure that Lottie could hear her.

"No it's fine. I've been deaf in my right ear since I was six so a little over ten years. I can't exactly remember who it happened, I seem to have repressed the whole incident from my memory which is a good thing according to Rusty. Apparently one of my mom's boyfriend's was drunk and in a blind fury and smacking my mom around, according to Rusty one moment I was standing next to her, then the next moment I had been sent flying across the room and smack into the wall. Single sided deafness can be caused by physical trauma and well I've been deaf ever since that incident…"

"Lottie…" Sharon wearily began, no doubt shocked about the abuse that she was hearing but Lottie just smiled as she was used to it.

"I would say I have worst injuries but I don't know if you can compare breaking your clavicle and wrist to becoming deaf in one ear. But you know, you adapt and know I have an excuse if I not listening when someone speaks to me." Lottie replied in a jokey manner as she found the best way to deal with her hearing impairment was humor even though she didn't have much of a sense of humor to begin with. She was less sensitive to the whole deaf thing than Rusty was.

"It must be hard." Sharon noted.

"At times. I find it hard to watch movies and I have to have subtitles on, I can't locate the direction of sound or it's distance but I cope and it's not like I have complete hearing loss. If anything it's harder for Rusty then it is me…" Lottie noted as she looked over her shoulder to the couch where her brother was still soundly sleeping.

"Why's that?"

"My brother has always thought that it was his job to take care of me, even though Rusty is barely fifteen older than me he takes being a big brother seriously. We never had much growing up with my mom because of all her problems and so we had to scrimp and save for me to get my first hearing aid. It took about two years for that and I was self conscious about wearing the hearing aid and I still am, hence the pink hair. What my brother did out in Griffith Park wasn't out of choice, he wouldn't have done what he did unless he had no other choice. Not long after my mom took off my old hearing aid got ruined and I needed a new one. Rusty did those things to buy me a new hearing aid, I used to tell him that it was fine, I had a couple of years without the hearing aid and I could do it again, that it was more important for us to eat. But Rusty was adamant that he was getting me a new hearing aid, that he was going to take care of me. I used to always ask him, if he was so busy taking care of me who would take care of him. Even though it's been ten years sometimes Rusty will forget that I'm partially deaf and he'll be speaking to me from a distance but I can't hear. He'll get mad because he thinks I'm purposely ignoring him but then I'll tell him I can't hear and it comes back to him and then he gets mad that he forget. I'll tell him that's fine but Rusty will just get worked up about. Rusty has always tried not to make my hearing problems a big issue but that time he did. I remember when he gave my the hearing aid, I cried because I knew what he had done to get it. Instead of buying what we really needed he got me my hearing aid…" Lottie wearily said as she fingered her hearing aid.

"It's beyond obvious that Rusty cares a lot about you." Sharon murmured with a small smile.

"He's a good boy, I know he's difficult and stubborn but Rusty feels like he has to be the one to take care of us. He's been through so much and even then he still won't let me take care of him…"

"What are you reading?" Sharon questioned before taking a sip of her coffee.

"Anna Karenina."

"Impressive. I've never got a chance to get around to reading it myself but it's a very ambitious book for someone your age to be reading Lottie. Do you like to read?" Sharon stated with a warm smile and Lottie could see what the woman was trying to do, clearly Sharon was trying to make her feel a little more at ease by talking about something a little more neutral.

"Yeah… I spend a lot of time in libraries as reading is a good escape from everything so I read whatever I can. I usually get into most of my accidents because I've got my head stuck in a book, reading seems to make me more klutzy. Rusty got me this for our birthday, he kept apologizing because of the condition of the book." Lottie began as she closed the book and showed Sharon the well worn cover. "I actually like books in this condition, it shows that they've been read and possibly enjoyed after all books are meant to be enjoyed. I'm still trying to get into Anna Karenina, it goes a bit over my head at times but I'm getting there. No matter how long it takes I'm going to finish this."

"Well I hope that when you do finish then you'll be so kind as to lend your copy to me so that I can attempt to have a read." Sharon said in a warm manner and despite her best efforts not to smile, Lottie couldn't help it. She rather liked the sound of that.


End file.
